BERLIN \u2014 German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet decided Wednesday to deploy an additional 550 troops to missions against jihadi\u00a0fighters in Mali and Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They will be deployed in Mali, to relieve French forces in their fight against jihadis, and in northern Iraq, to train Kurdish troops also battling IS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The boost to the two missions must be approved by parliament, which is seen likely in coming weeks given the strong majority of Merkel’s coalition government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some 500 of the additional troops will be sent to the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, to monitor a peace deal between the government and northern rebels in the west African country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bundeswehr’s previous mandate there was for 150 soldiers, but only about 10 were deployed. The new total deployment could therefore be up to 650 troops, cabinet decided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This comes on top of some 200 German soldiers who are serving as part of a European training mission of Malian soldiers in the country’s more stable south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In northern Iraq, Germany will boost from 50 to 150 troops its mission to provide weapons training to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In November, after the Islamic State group attacks in Paris, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen had vowed to support France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We will and must stand firmly by France’s side and do everything we can to help in this situation,” von der Leyen said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Northern Mali fell under the control of al-Qaida-linked groups in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but large swathes of Mali remain lawless and prone to attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet decided Wednesday to deploy an additional 550 troops to missions against jihadi fighters in Mali and Iraq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":82894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":46,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[46,11,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2793],"class_list":["post-40630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-global","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"2D5LGUSO6ZHNBJKUZ4ET2C4U3Y","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/europe\/2016\/01\/06\/germany-to-send-550-more-troops-to-mali-iraq-missions\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n